


Communication is the Key

by melonbutterfly



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, Angst, Established Relationship, Love Confessions, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 21:56:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1010579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>...too bad that neither Tony nor Loki are particularly good at it. Tony prefers to speak through gestures, and when something cuts him deep Loki tends to react first, think later.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Communication is the Key

So, Tony is not the most romantic guy around. He isn't. Generally he relies on the people in his life being able to deduce how much they mean to him by reading between the lines; every now and then he supplies them with blunt honesty, often couched as a joke and sometimes not, but that's not really romantic. It does the job, though, which is all that matters, he thinks.

He is, however, well-aware that most relationship – whether romantic or platonic – require a bit more, and that expensive gifts don't quite cut it. If his relationship with Pepper taught him anything, it's that.

Which stumps him for a while, because what else is there apart from gifts? Until he realizes that there are different types of gifts that mean different things in different contexts. What matters maybe more than the price of a gift is how much thought was put into it; remembering an off-handed remark is a demonstration how much a person matters. So when he brings Bruce his favorite tea flavor that he once had in India and never found outside the country, it's not how much it cost that shows Bruce that he's important to Tony, it's the fact that Tony remembered Bruce mentioning it once three weeks ago and then went to the effort of doing the research to figure out what tea exactly Bruce could mean (it had still been a bit of a gamble; he had two other possible types stored in case he was wrong with his best guess – luckily, he wasn't).

Bruce is happy, his smile delighted and his eyes warm when he looks at Tony, the same way Natasha reacts when Tony brings her a rare type of Japanese knife she mentioned having heard of, and Steve actually gets a little teary-eyed when Tony buys him the original prints of a lesser-known sketch artist from the forties Steve cited as having a big influence on him at the time.

Thus, all tests have had ringing positive effects and Tony can in no way absolutely not be blamed for what happens when he cooks dinner for Loki.

The thing is, it's very hard to make Loki gifts because the things he truly wants are unattainable or just not within Tony's power to obtain, and everything else he's perfectly capable of getting himself. Which includes but is not limited to Tony, because one day Loki decided that he wanted to bed that and he did. With Tony's enthusiastic agreement, of course, but Loki had been the instigator. He hasn't remained that, Tony initiates sex as often as Loki does, but still, the niggling thought remains that Loki is the one who started it so Tony can't wait for Loki to give him some sort of signal that this is more than sex.

Which it is, they both know it, but they've taken painstaking care not to make it obvious. All things considered that's a little ridiculous, which is why Tony has been striving to change that and, barring the opportunity to give Loki something he's been wanting but incapable of obtaining, he decided on a gesture. A meaningful gesture.

All research indicated that a self-cooked candle-light dinner is the perfect gesture to indicate romantic interest. Tony is an awful cook, he just is, he gets sidetracked and bored and tries to speed up the process at the wrong time, so it takes him a couple of tries, but he actually manages to cook spaghetti bologna by himself without burning anything. That is with self-made sauce, nothing from a glass. He is a little proud of that and gets a little cocky trying his hand at tiramisu; it gets a bit messy but, well, after the third try he manages to mostly master that as well.

Thus sufficiently prepared, Tony invites Loki to his private quarters, sets the table, makes the food, Loki comes in, Tony presents the food to him and tells him he's made it all himself... Loki's entire body goes rigid and his voice is stiff when he says, "There was no need to mock me so, Stark. You could have simply told me you were not interested in continuing our arrangement." Before turning on his heel and leaving.

"What," Tony says after gaping after him for a few seconds. "What? Wait!" But Loki is already in the elevator, the doors closing after him, and when the others moved into the tower Tony had to promise not to use his sovereignty over all functions against them. "What? JARVIS, what just happened?"

"I admit, I am at a loss, sir," JARVIS says hesitantly.

No, but seriously. "...did Loki just break up with me?"

"It appears he rather thought you were the one intending to break up with him," JARVIS replies. "And humiliating him in the process, as well."

Oh, fuck that noise. Not even bothering to wait for the elevator Tony stomps down the stairs until he gets to Loki's private floor. Unsurprisingly, the door is closed to him and refuses to open. "Come on, Loki!" Tony calls out, knocking insistently. "Open up! I gotta talk to you!"

Of course Loki doesn't open the door. He refuses to listen to the messages Tony tries to pass on to him through JARVIS and doesn't bother having JARVIS tell Tony anything, apart from having him relay his wish for Tony to leave him alone.

Which, no. That's not gonna fly with Tony. He doesn't know what the hell is going on right now but Loki has successfully managed to completely freak him out, and he's not going to let whatever just happened stand. Not if Loki thought he was trying to _break up_ with him.

"Stark?" Thor says in confusion as he steps out of the elevator. His eyes go back and forth between the closed door and Tony's angry expression. "Are you and my brother quarreling?"

"I don't fucking know!" Frustrated, Tony tears at his hair. "One minute I'm trying to cook him dinner, the next he gets pissed for absolutely no reason at all and storms off, and now he refuses to even talk to me!"

A heavy frown darkens Thor's expression. "You made food for my brother?" He asks stiffly.

Eyes narrowing – because that's not a natural reaction to that information – Tony nods. "Yeah. What's wrong with that?"

Thor purses his lips. "You need not be surprised my brother reacts with anger to such an insult."

Wait, what? "Wait. Wait wait wait." Tony lifts both hands. "Insult? What even? How is that an insult?"

Thor tilts his head, narrowing his eyes in confusion, and that's when the pin drops. They both go still for a moment as they realize what just happened – cultural misunderstandings used to happen often at first, but they've been living together with for over a year now and most of it got cleared within the first couple of months.

Letting out a breath, Thor starts to explain. "The preparation of food for a person in an intimate setting when said person has not previously obtained the food that is to be prepared is a grave insult because it implies that they are not capable of providing for themselves. Loki does not react well to his abilities being doubted, and I imagine it was an especial blow coming from you, Anthony."

Great. Just great. "So he thought I was, what, mocking him? Coddling him? Implying he's inferior?"

"Yes," Thor says simply.

Fucking awesome.

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Tony leans his head back and thinks about that for a moment. Part of him is insulted; first because his gesture was not at all acknowledged, but he has to realize that that's not Loki's fault. As much as they all intended not to react badly to cultural misunderstandings, it's not like conflicts like that come with a neat label or are as easily explained as "smashing cups is rude here". Sometimes things would come across wrong for weeks without anybody truly aware of what was going on. Coming at it that way, it's understandable Loki reacted the way he did.

Still, Tony is pissed that Loki thinks he would actually do something like that, to him of all people. He would have thought that after the past couple of weeks of them dancing around acknowledging that they were serious about each other, Loki wouldn't so easily assume Tony was going to do the exact opposite.

Right. "JARVIS, try again one more time?"

"Apologies, sir," JARVIS says a moment later.

Well, as far as Tony is concerned, Loki didn't want it any other way. "Thor, now's probably not a good time. I gotta clear some shit up with your brother."

"I can tell," Thor says, raising one eyebrow. "Good luck. When he has been insulted, Loki is not often inclined to listen until his anger has run its course."

Yeah, Tony isn't going to allow for that to happen. He's going to tell Loki just what the fuck he meant and more importantly, didn't mean to do. After that Loki can lock himself up all he wants.

Striding over to the elevator, Tony rides back up to the penthouse and walks out onto the balcony, activating the suit assembling process as he walks towards the landing platform. Once he's in the suit he jumps off and drops down until he's on the level of Loki's floor. "Which room, JARVIS?"

"The living room, sir," JARVIS dutifully replies.

Tony flies over to the appropriate window and taps his fingers against the glass. "Tell him I'll smash the fucking window in if he doesn't let me in."

After a solid minute, Tony is already lifting his hand to do just that, the window opens to reveal Loki, white-faced with anger. "What-" he starts, voice cold and furious, and nope. Tony isn't going to start some sort of wherefore art thou dialogue. He is careful about not injuring Loki, but he does bodily push his way into the room before taking off the helmet.

"I know this is not okay," he leads with, because that should at least make Loki pause for a moment; as it is, Loki looks like he's one wrong word away from throwing Tony through a window again. "And I'm gonna leave in a moment if you want me to, but fucking hell, Loki, that was some serious misunderstanding. Of the culture kind."

Loki just stares at him, face blank and eyes cold, and suddenly all of Tony's anger is gone and he deflates. What is he even doing here? Loki actually thought he was going to break up with him. That's not a simple misunderstanding, that's... possibly, what Tony thought was happening between them wasn't actually happening.

"Right. That's all I wanted to say, I guess. If you want to know what I was actually trying to do you should google that, but I'll just... go now. Sorry about this." He gestures in a way that is meant to encompass his presence in Loki's living room – Jesus, he literally forced his way in, talk about overstepping his boundaries – and then steps to the window, dropping out. Loki doesn't stop him.

On the way down he pulls his helmet on again and says, "JARVIS, excommunicado until I say otherwise."

JARVIS acknowledges the order with a quiet beep; he won't talk to Tony until Tony lifts the ban, unless in case of emergency.

Tony takes a deep breath and just flies.

He gets back about an hour later, not feeling much better but at least not feeling any worse. At least he doesn't until he steps into the penthouse again, suit off, and finds Loki waiting for him, arms crossed and face closed off.

"It is a grave insult on Asgard to prepare food for someone without a preceding hunt," Loki says stiffly.

"Yeah, Thor said," Tony says tiredly, making his way to the bar. So Loki did google; otherwise he wouldn't be here. The forbidding expression on his face is all Tony needs to know, though. "You don't need to say it."

"Say what?" Loki narrows his eyes.

Tony pours himself a drink with one hand and gestures with the other, carefully not looking at Loki. "The whole thanks but no thanks speech. Don't need it. Figured that out all on my own."

"You assume the- your intention was unwelcome?" Loki says, actually sounding surprised. Which, wow.

"Clearly." Tony accidentally looks up to send Loki a pointed look before getting some ice cubes to have an excuse to look away from him again. "Look. I assumed we were going somewhere we clearly weren't. I do that; I assume things. I was wrong. It won't happen again, about this." He gestures between them before dropping his hand as he remembers that there isn't really a "this". They had sex, Tony thought it was more, Loki thought Tony was fed-up enough with him to dump him in a really shitty way. If dumping even truly applies, considering there wasn't a relationship beforehand.

Silence falls between them, only broken by the gentle clink of the ice cubes as Tony sips his drink. He's concentrating on that, the hard, cool glass in his hand, the burn of liquor down his throat, physical sensations to focus on in lieu of what's going on inside now, and so he almost jumps with surprise when Loki speaks up again, almost next to him.

"Tony," he says, voice unexpectedly soft.

Surprised by that as well as the fact that Loki is still here Tony stills, but he doesn't look at Loki until a hand moves into his line of vision. A delicate chain dangles from it, an oval amulet dangling from it. "I made this for you," Loki says quietly. "Some time ago. I meant to give it to you – I was waiting for the right moment. Perhaps this is not it, or maybe there couldn't be a better moment than now."

Brows furrowed in confusion, Tony glances at Loki who looks serious, almost grave. Then he takes the amulet and takes a closer look, absently asking for JARVIS to turn on the lights.

It's Loki's crest, the one he made a little less than a year ago. He refused to continue to assume Odin's crest and didn't even consider adopting Laufey's, if Laufey had one to begin with. Instead, he had made his own. It's relatively simple; a stylized wolf head poised proudly in mid-howl, a snake coiled around its neck. Framing the head is a horizontal crescent moon, curved protectively around the wolf and snake. The whole image is silver on a dark green background, some sort of matte stone, bordered in silver. Loki hadn't explained his crest to anyone, but Tony had had his own thoughts on it.

It's beautiful. However, Tony is careful now, made wary by today's misunderstanding. "It's beautiful," he says cautiously, finally raising his eyes to look at Loki. "Is there some significance to you giving it to me?"

"Yes, and to you carrying it," Loki readily explains. His expression is serious. "It's not so much about claiming ownership as it is about making one's affiliation official." Self-deprecatingly, he grimaces. "Much like the meal was supposed to be, though that would have been more private. Which perhaps is a better way to go about making such declarations."

"Declarations," Tony repeats dumbly.

"Yes." Loki steps a little closer. "I'm sorry, Tony. I overreacted. I should at least have allowed you to explain instead of immediately assuming the worst-case scenario and reacting accordingly."

"You couldn't have known," Tony shrugs, eyes turning back to the amulet. It's not big, and the chain is short enough it wouldn't clink awkwardly against the arc reactor if he wore it. Clearly Loki put some thought into this, and clearly it's a very meaningful gift.

"I should have, though," Loki insists, stepping closer still and tentatively reaching out to put one hand on Tony's back. When Tony doesn't shrug him off he gets bolder, slides his arm around Tony's waist and tugs him into a lop-sided embrace.

Tony remains impassive for a moment before he gives up – Loki was intending to make their relationship official by giving Tony an amulet of his crest; he knows how important crests are on Asgard, Thor only wears his to special occasions and when he goes to war (and their typical defensive Avengers missions don't count). Anything bearing a crest isn't handed out easily; it has to be passed on by the head of the house. Which for Loki is Loki, obviously. And Tony would bet his tower that Loki hasn't given anybody else anything bearing his crest.

With a sigh, Tony turns and leans into Loki's embrace, wraps his free arm around him while curling the other between their chests, hand wrapped around the amulet. "This really didn't go well, did it?"

"We may yet salvage something from it," Loki says. One of his hands cards through Tony's hair; his lips brush against his temple as he speaks. "I wish for you to have this, and bear it if you so choose. By this, I mean to offer you to... no." Grip on Tony suddenly tightening, Loki growls, "I love you. That is what I mean to say."

Okay, so. Tony really wasn't expecting to hear that, at all, much less now, so it's understandable he can't breathe for a moment. After a moment of processing that, he opens his mouth and says, "I love you too." Which is not at all what he meant to say today. Not with words, at least, because his bouts of non-joking honesty are rare, and this isn't something he'd couch in a joke. Clearly, that tactic doesn't protect him from misunderstandings.

"Good," Loki says, the breath he lets out betraying the calmness of his voice.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Morning Light](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011536) by [hannahrhen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hannahrhen/pseuds/hannahrhen)




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